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Also on this date in history in 1974, owner Ray Kroc went on the PA system after a Padres loss on their home opener to say "Ladies and gentlemen‚ I suffer with you. . . . I've never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life."

I like that idea, and I wonder if it wouldn't be an overall winner for MLB.

Don't tell the Ricketts...

Cubs ironically play tonight -- I never understood why Cubs always seem so hot to toss a bunch of night games into April... the weather is usually lousy (it's gonna be ccccooooollllddd tonight). Why not bunch them up in the summer? I'd be willing to bet that the April no shows far outpace the summer no shows - even if the team is already known to suck in June/July/August.

That's because it is. As JJ notes, it will be interesting to see how attendance tracks now that it's not just being held around Father's Day and mid-July.

As a Sox fan it feels like OK, off to a solid start, took two of three from a division rival that should be improved (Royals), then wrap up the homestand with a couple close wins against another improved team, the Mariners -- and now they head off to Washington where they have to bench their DH and have their pitchers run around the bases in hamstring tweaking temps.

It's just stupid and ruins the flow of the season. Just when you get used to reserving a couple weeks in mid-summer for the distraction (the novelty has worn off, no?) the distraction now hits 6 games into the season. Cripes.

I was paying attention to the WBC and not spring training, so when I tuned into the home opener and saw that the 5-9 hitters were Lind, Arencibia, Rasmus, Bonifacio, and Izturis, I was somewhat surprised. Some of those are useful players, but the injury to Lawrie and the bench of Blanco, Davis, and Derosa make the lineup really shallow.

It appears right now that the interleague alignment with teams playing 2 of 3 divisions only has a 'home and home' series... if we're going to have interleague year round, I'd much rather just do a single series (alternate home teams every year).

I mean.... you people realize we're not going to see the Marlins and Astros play this year, right? Who wouldn't want to see a 89 inning scoreless affair that threatens Nolan Ryan's single season strikeout record in a single game?

To go along with the interleague-all-season-long thing, there's a couple other schedule quirks that I believe are first-time happenings:

(a) The Sox play a non-Cub interleague team both home and away this season -- two against the Mets at Citi, two at US Cellular. I think I saw the Brewers do the same with Texas, so I assume this is now a league-wide thing.

(b) The Sox Cubs series has been shortened to four games, and the series' are back-to-back. I actually like the change, at least vis-a-vis the usual six-game set. The games are way too obnoxious for regular season baseball, so it'll be nice to get it out of the way in four days.

As a fan of a Sox rival, you guys are well overdue for a big pitching injury anyway. Deal with it.

Well, there's a good chance John Danks never returns to his pre-injury self. He was struggling to hit 90 MPH in spring training, and was subsequently getting thrashed by minor leaguers.

Pitchtrax isn't the end all be all but the sequence to Ramirez was brutal. 3 bad calls in one at bat.

I'm going to have to see how the ump (Phil Cuzzi) calls those sorts of pitches for Jake Peavy before I really flip out. A bad strike zone is problematic enough, but as Pete Rose pointed out the other day in that linked article, part of the job of pitchers and hitters is to know their plate umpires. An INCONSISTENTLY BAD strike zone is the truly vein-busting frustration.

Lefty on the mound for the Nats makes it a no brainer. Viciedo is the better fielder (on arm alone) and compared to Dunn, mashes LHP. Problem is Dunn is off to a slow start and now he gets to sit. Whoopee.

so the brewers infield is Betancourt (gack), weeks, segura, gonzalez and peralta. I have watched a lot of Milwaukee games. I don't know if there has ever been an all, well how do you say, non-Caucasian infield. and peralta is pitching

Castro's defense showed promise, but he's always had some issues with mentally bearing down on the more rudimentary defensive plays. That hasn't really improved; if anything, it seems to be getting a little worse.